Tartarus Sorceror
Posts: 1698
Joined: Saturday, 18th June 2016, 13:57
Let's Rework Ash and Remove Curses
For example, *contamination is more interesting than curses. Contamination isn't cured by a scroll. More importantly: an item with *contamination maintains a strategic aspect to using it even if you have a pile of scrolls.
Remove curses, remove the ID minigame, instead of curses slap contamination on random items in the dungeon. So you find a ring of fire, or one of +3 slaying, with *contamination: you can use them, but you already know what's the catch, if you want to let them down. And that's the beauty of it: it is YOUR choice, not that of the RNG, about when the first scroll of remove curses will appear. The player is in control.
*Drain is similar to *contamination, and could also be used. It also strikes indiscriminately, unlike contamination, which makes distinctions between alive and undead. However, its weight decreases at higher levels.
So you can remove scrolls of ID and remove curse, and instead have Ash curse your items with contamination. Make it piety based, or XP based, or based off some other items (wand charges?). Slight debuff to Ash, since all characters already ID everything on sight.
Then you could pay more wand charges or piety or whatever to remove the contamination before you remove the item, or just suck it up.
(The easier version would be limiting curses to Ash and leaving the game free from them except *cursed, with full automatic ID for everyone, but it doesn't seem to have much traction).
Remove curses, remove the ID minigame, instead of curses slap contamination on random items in the dungeon. So you find a ring of fire, or one of +3 slaying, with *contamination: you can use them, but you already know what's the catch, if you want to let them down. And that's the beauty of it: it is YOUR choice, not that of the RNG, about when the first scroll of remove curses will appear. The player is in control.
*Drain is similar to *contamination, and could also be used. It also strikes indiscriminately, unlike contamination, which makes distinctions between alive and undead. However, its weight decreases at higher levels.
So you can remove scrolls of ID and remove curse, and instead have Ash curse your items with contamination. Make it piety based, or XP based, or based off some other items (wand charges?). Slight debuff to Ash, since all characters already ID everything on sight.
Then you could pay more wand charges or piety or whatever to remove the contamination before you remove the item, or just suck it up.
(The easier version would be limiting curses to Ash and leaving the game free from them except *cursed, with full automatic ID for everyone, but it doesn't seem to have much traction).
I Feel the Need--the Need for Beer
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